Krampfhaft

Krampfhaft hails from Utrecht. His name means something like "convulsive," which fits his erratic, constantly moving tracks to a tee. The producer, known to friends as Joris van Grunsen, debuted on the label Saturate Records with the "Brightly Colored Candy Teardrops" EP, a title which describes it as well as anything ever will. He also released the fantastic 7" "Spit Thunder," on which he layered bold synths over speed-addled drums and syrup-drenched vocals. It was a hint to where he'd go in the near future, mincing 8-bit with futurist sound design and all kinds of alien structures. But it was on his first release for Rwina, the freshly-baked Makin' Magic EP, where Krampfhaft's genius really comes to light, as he incorporates footwork influences in a manner much smoother than many of his cohorts. On tracks like "I Needed You", he takes the hyperactivity of his debut and turns it into hyper-focus, laser-guided footwork destruction, and on the EP's title track he constructs a megalomaniac synth eruption complete with overblown pronouncements of grandiosity.
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